- World No 1 beats Alexandre Muller 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-3
- Alcaraz: ‘I’m playing great, getting better every match’
An heir presumptive or the presumptuous heir? Nobody could accuse the indefatigably polite Carlos Alcaraz of being the latter among a strong field of contenders – or even dreaming of the former, but no one watching the young Spaniard here on Friday could argue with any conviction that the prince will not one day be king.
For the moment and the foreseeable future, Novak Djokovic starts favourite in every tournament he enters, but, increasingly, it is Alcaraz who hounds him most consistently. On Friday, he did not make his case as well as he might have wished, as bits of his game misfired from time to time, but he always had too much for his stubborn, outclassed opponent, Alexandre Muller, the 26-year-old Frenchman who has climbed steadily but without clamour to the heady heights of No 84 in the world.